Although we might place Nothing But Blue Skies in a tradition of the American novel as critique of the business ethic ranging from Henry James's The Ambassadors (1904) to The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, its most pertinent precedents are McGuane's earlier novels themselves. The antagonism between father and son characterizing his early works appears here, but as a historical fact, absorbed by the more imminent breakup of a marriage. If this reflects a maturity in theme, it also signals a movement toward closure and resolution in structure that the earliest of McGuane's novels tended to evade.

It is still the case that we find here a narrative composed of a succession of riotous incidents, a headlong careening toward a dreaded future — Copenhaver scraping Boyd off the back of his pickup by driving it through the carwash, spearing Darryl's truck with a forklift...